


Reduce

by orphan_account



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Best friends Cute Friends, Equally protective Taako and Merle, Gen, Idk why I wrote this I have lots of dumb ideas, Magnus needs to take better care of himself, Very Protective Magnus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 17:16:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9774014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Magnus starts working himself too hard and he's too stubborn to stop. Taako get's fed up with this, puts his foot down and casts a spell. Nobody was expecting the results.





	

“What the fuck were you thinking?!” Taako shouted as he busted into the B.O.B’s infirmary. Magnus and the doctor jumped at the elf’s sudden entrance causing the doctor to fumble a little bit with the needle she was using to patch up a gash on Magnus’ arm. He was bloody and bruised, his left eye swollen and dark, several deep gashes cut into his skin, many bandages were wrapped around his midsection that were stained a bright crimson from the huge injury he had taken. He’s had better days, but at the same time he’s had worse too.

“Geez Taako knock first!” The fighter scolded the frazzled wizard. He flinched a little as the doctor resumed her work on stitching up a gash on his arm.

“Oh I’m sorry, you don’t want me _rushing into the room?_ ” He asked sarcastically teeth bared.

“Is that what this is about?” Magnus rolled his eyes “Look we were running short on time, those golem guards were coming down the hall, we needed to hide!”

“You should have waited for me to cast Clairvoyance so I could have at least seen if anything was in there! Not just bust down the door like you’re some kind of militia man!” Taako pointed a finger in the taller man’s face “If you had waited, then we would have found out it was a fucking break room filled to the brim with armed soldiers and then come up with a different solution! But nooo, Magnus fucking rushes in like always! And don’t even get me started on when you jumped in front of Merle and took that axe for him!” He gestured to the large bandaged up gut injury with his other hand.

Magnus sighed and gently lowered Taako’s accusatory hand “It’s fine if I take the hits. Big guys like me are supposed to take the brunt of the damage for our teammates. Merle would have died from that attack, you know that. The last thing I want is to see one of you get seriously hurt on my watch… Listen, I’m still pretty wiped out. Can we talk about this more later?”

Taako stood there and stared at his companion for a full thirty seconds. He exhaled sharply through his nose and said almost too calmly “Fine.” There was a look in the elf’s eyes that Magnus knew all too well at this point. The gears were turning in his head and that could never be good. Nevertheless, the wizard left without another word. Magnus sighed again when the door closed, oh well, guess he’ll just deal with that problem after he had a good long rest.

Unfortunately for Magnus that problem seemed to catch up to him a lot sooner than he thought. It was the next day and he was walking across the campus when Taako suddenly appeared in front of him, hand on his hip and eyebrow raised.

“Where do you think you’re going? You’re supposed to be in bed resting.” He stated knowingly.

“Oh, I was going to go train. Maybe some sparring… “

“Sparring?” Taako cut him off, clearly confused “Magnus you can’t be serious. It’s only been a day. If you push yourself like this, you’re going to open up your stitches.” He pointed to the bandages on his arms and abdomen.

“Okay fine,” The human shrugged “I’ll skip the sparring and just do some light weight lifting. I want to be stronger just in case we- “

“Just in case we run into another situation where you have to block a death blow for one of us? No. No no no, no training today.” He shakes his head and wags a finger “I’m sure Merle will agree with me here, too. You should be resting and recovering to your full health.”

“Taako, come on. I told you I’m fine with protecting you guys and taking the bad hits.” Magnus was starting to get a little annoyed at the wizard’s insisting on treating him like he’s the one that needed protecting right now. If anything, he had to get stronger so _he_ could protect _them_ better next time they went planet-side.

“No! I’m putting my foot down Magnus! You either go back to bed right now or I’m making you. You have until the count of three.” Taako lifted his arms in a way that told Magnus he was getting ready to use a spell. “One…”

“Taako this is stupid.” Magnus rolled his eyes.

“Two…”

“You’re just bluffing!” Oh, shit he wasn’t bluffing, was he?

“Three!”

“TAAKO!”

There was a flash of light, a light-headed feeling, a pressure in his chest, and a sensation like falling. Magnus covered his eyes and cursed loudly. He fell backwards onto the ground rubbing at his eyes and rapidly blinking to try to clear his vision.

“Holy _shit_ , Taako what was that for?!” He shouted.

“ _That_ was for being a dumbass.” The wizard’s voice was… A little louder than Magnus had been expecting startling him a little. And it sounded like his voice was coming from above him.

Slowly, Magnus lifted one of his hands away from his eye and opened it just a tad. What he saw caused him to do a double take.

Taako was in front of him. Only thing was that now he was _huge._ The elf was sitting on his haunches, looking down at Magnus. He was seated on the ground with a smug look on his face. His hands were resting on his knees, a quickly fading light coming from his palms.

Magnus shot to his feet and looked around. Did… Did Taako just _shrink_ him?! He looked up at Taako, who almost looked slightly amused at Magnus’ shock.

“What the hell did you do to me?!” The human shouted.

“I cast Reduce on you. You’ve seen me use it before.” The wizard responded with a shrug “Though I will admit I think I added a little too much juice to that one. I wasn’t trying to make you that tiny.” He lowered his hand so his palm rested on the top of Magnus’ small head, the shrunken man froze stiff, not daring to move. Not out of fear but more out of embarrassment if anything. Though, the last time he was shrunk, he almost got killed by a cockroach. Not good memories there.

“I’m not exactly _hating_ this size for you.” Taako smirked when Magnus’ face turned a few shades pinker.

“Taako turn me back. Right. Now.” Magnus lifted his arms and moved Taako’s hand to the side so he could look the elf in the face. _Fuck_ his hands were so tiny looking compared to the wizard’s.

“Hmmm, nope.” He responded simply “Sorry, not really, but I’m doing this for your own good Magnus.” Without warning, the elf’s other hand swooped in and easily scooped up the little human. Taako’s ear twitched when he heard what could have been nothing more than a startled squeak as he easily lifted Magnus into his palm. Oh, he is never going to let him live this down.

He brought Magnus to chest level and cupped his other hand behind his friend so he wouldn’t fall. Ignoring the sounds of protest coming from Magnus, he quickly rose to his feet and made his way back to their shared living area, smirking to himself the whole way.

Fifteen minutes later found Magnus and Taako sitting on the couch in their common room. The elf sitting crisscross apple sauce, with a pillow in his lap and Magnus laying on top pouting like a child. Taako snickered “Aw come on. You’ll grow back when the spell wears off. Don’t be so mad.”

“I’m not mad…” Magnus looked to the side “This is just embarrassing… And weird.”

Taako smiled and used a finger to gently rub the top of his head “Well this is what you get for being stupid. Now just relaaax, my dude…”

At that moment, the door opened to reveal Merle holding a bag in his hands.

“Hey Taako, have you seen Magnus? I got him-!” The dwarf stopped in his tracks when he saw the scene before him “Oh.”

Magnus got even more pink in the face “H-Heyyy Merle.”

“Okay. So, would one of you care to explain what is going on here?” Merle gestured with his hand at his shrunken friend.

“I shrunk him to keep him from doing something stupid and getting himself hurt any more than he already is.” Taako said, still idly stroking the top of Magnus’ head with his finger.

“I was just going to get some exercise!” Magnus argued.

“You should be _resting_ , not exercising.” The wizard gave his small friend a quick gentle tap to emphasize his point.

“Taako’s right Magnus. You should just take things easy until your injuries are healed. Everybody needs a break every once and a while.” Merle sat on the couch next to the elf and lowered himself so he was more eye level with the small human. “And is it okay if I say you look adorable right now?”

“I know, right?” Taako agreed with a small grin.

“Oh my gods.” Magnus buried his face in his hands.

“He’s just so tiny!” Merle coos.

“I guess you could say I had to literally take matters into my own hands.” A shit eating grin accompanied the pun, along with Taako gently pressing his hand against Magnus’ side to drive the point home. The human was the perfect size to fit into his palm.

“You’re both terrible.”

“Can I hold him?”

“Sure.”

“No!”

“Too late.” Merle scooped Magnus up; careful not to upset any of his injuries.

Magnus never been more aware of how his friends’ hands felt before now. Taako’s had been soft yet his movements were firm and steady. Considering how the wizard’s spells sometimes required very specific gestures and hand positions (and the fact he used to be a chef), the idea that Taako was very good with his hand movements was no surprise.

Merle’s hands though were very different. They were more thick and clumsy, not to the point where they’d drop Magnus, but not as confident in their movements as Taako’s. The flesh hand was rough and calloused in a few places, meanwhile the wooden one well… It was wood. It felt like he was sitting on a hand shaped log.

“So how long is he stuck like this for?” Merle asked, turning his eyes away from Magnus to look at Taako.

“Ah, well since I over saturated the spell a tad… A few hours?” The elf shrugged “Hell if I know. He’ll turn back when he turns back. For now, let’s just enjoy the fact that we have actually found a method that’ll keep him from rushing into trouble.”

“Hey!” Magnus shouted from Merle’s palms “No way! You are _not_ doing this again!”

“I won’t do it again if you promise to actually take better care of yourself.” Taako grinned and wiggled his fingers in a mischievous fashion.

“Well I would take better care of myself if you guys would stop nearly getting killed all the time!” Magnus retorted, and he would have continued had Merle not put one of his fat fingers to Magnus’ mouth and made a shushing sound much to Magnus’ chagrin.

“Okay you two let’s not get into a fight. Magnus, I got something for you to help you feel better.” The dwarf had a wide grin on his face as he shifted Magnus to one hand and dug out the bag he had brought with him. He set the bag down on the couch and dug around in it before pulling out something that instantly made Magnus’ mood start to lift.

“Is that Turkish Delight?!” Exclaimed Magnus, a grin forming on his face.

“Yep. Figured you’d be bummed out about the whole “bed rest” thing, being as hyper active as you are. So, I got you a whole bag of the stuff to help cheer you up. Here ya go.” Merle brought the piece he picked up to Magnus who snatched it up without hesitation. He couldn’t help it; it was a _huge_ Turkish delight.

While he went to town on his treat he came to the decision that, for now, to appease his friend’s worrying, he’ll rest. He didn’t have much of a choice, did he? Now that Merle was there he was pretty much outnumbered (and outsized), so it looked like all he could do was take it easy even though he had just wanted to get some training in.

The two of them were probably loving this view of a small, starry eyed Magnus, happily eating a Turkish Delight that was half his current size. He didn’t want to look up in case he started feeling embarrassed again. He could hear their stifled giggling from above, boy oh boy was he going to get them back for this.

Merle gently set Magnus back down on the pillow, which Taako had moved off his lap and propped it up so Magnus would be resting in a sitting up position.

“Now listen little man – snrk – You’re going to sit right there, relax, and let Merle and I take care of things.” Taako rubbed a finger on Magnus’ head again.

“But what if we get a new assignment? I- “

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. In a pinch, I can use my healing magic to help speed up the process of your injuries, but it’d probably be better for your body to heal naturally and wait for that shrinking spell to wear off before doing that. Magical oversaturation can be dangerous, so it’ll be best to just let things go their course for right now.” Merle explained moving the bag of candy so it was propped up in a way where Magnus could reach in for more if he wanted. “And don’t worry about the whole being small thing anyway. Do you really think Taako and I would let anything bad happen to you?”

“No…” A small smile crept onto Magnus’ face.

“You protected us during that whole scuffle, now it’s our turn to protect you while you recover. And if we gotta protect you from your own bad ideas, then that’s what we’ll do.” The wizard said with a chuckle.

Magnus couldn’t help but chuckle too. Despite this whole situation being beyond silly and stupid, he was grateful to have friends like Taako and Merle. It was why he was so stubborn on protecting them in the first place. But… He guessed he could have been more careful back there. He’ll just have to be more careful in the future then. Or else he’ll face the wrath of Taako and his shrinking spell again.

Though, if Magnus allowed himself a moment to be honest with himself. The idea didn’t seem all that bad. Not that he would admit it, but this moment of him sitting comfortably on the couch with his two best friends eating a massive Turkish delight, was turning out to make a pretty good one.

But he did plan on noogying the two of them the minute he grew back to his normal size.


End file.
